I don’t even know where to start (warning: this is going to be a long one). We had such a great trip and are already planning what our next trip to Thailand will look like. This was our “teaser” trip. A Thailand taster. And since we are not afraid of a road trip (right, Dad?), we decided to rent a car and self-drive. It was a great way to see Central/Southern Thailand and all of the hundreds of 7-11’s along the way.
Our route
We left Arusha at midnight on Christmas Eve and convinced the kids that there was no reason to stay awake to look out the airplane window to watch for Santa Claus. With the time change we got to our hotel about 2:00 on Christmas Day. We were tired but excited. It was a quiet day and basically stayed at the hotel with an unsuccessful jaunt out to find dinner…Christmas was surprisingly busy for a Buddhist country. We ended up with a decent room-service dinner from the hotel.
The next morning we left Bangkok in our rented Honda Civic and drove to our first beach location at Suan Luang Resort on the east coast of Thailand where we spent 3 nights (~5 hours including lunch stop). This visually unimpressive place was comfortable enough for us and it was a gentle entry into our stay. One day we just went to the beach and played in the surf and the other day we took a boat cruise out to an off-shore island. Hoards of tourists on the boat, but the island would have been a good place to spend a night. The boat ride was fun and lunch was good.
Lunch at Ma Prow in Prachuap Khiri Khan on the drive down. Tierney’s first of several noodle bowls.
Day in the Gulf of Thailand
One of the tour organizers….I don’t think she liked the sun
Bang Saphon town. Market visit where we bought our first kilo of clementine oranges…this turned into a daily habit. (Anderson really wanted to bring Mama Jackie back some fish)
7-Elevens were everywhere! We come to Thailand and buy blueberry yogurt and Oreos.
Gorgeous full moon rise over the gulf. Stunning.
I think this is the first beach place that the kids had been with true surf to play in. Until now we’d been seeking out places that were “child-friendly” with calm water, but here they had their first taste of getting tossed by the sea, getting knees and elbows scraped, all while giggling uncontrollably. It made for tired and happy kids.
From Bang Saphon we drove south and then west to Khao Sok National Park. The rainforest here is thought to be one of the oldest on the planet. We had one night planned in the treetop houses and another in a raft house on a lake. The raft houses were probably our favorite stop on our whole trip. Unexpected and so perfect for us.
After a long day in the car (6 hours) and lack of resort signage, we made it to our treehouse for lunch and an afternoon canoe down the river.
Stop to feed the fish. Ash and Anders liked putting their hand (with food) right into the water, so the fish came right up to them.
Rope swing into the river (no crocs!)
Elephant rock and nice views
Giant toad fascinated Anderson
The kids loved the shrines
From our treehouse spot we were driven to Chiew Larn Lake for an hour boat ride to our raft house. Amazing! Gorgeous! Stunning! Fun! Superlatives galore. Anyplace where you can swim out of your front AND back door with these amazing views is great by us.
Boats were powered by car motors. Our’s was from an Isuzu.
Can you believe this place?
We had the two at the end.
Anderson and I went out for the morning boat ride and we saw our first wild pig plus some macaw monkeys and toucans. Maybe if I’d had a cup of coffee before we left I would have some pics.
We all went out for a stop at a local fisherman’s house where Anderson wanted to buy catfish. Of course, Matt bought it for him and we had the place we were staying cook it up for us.
Then off to swim in the bat cave. Pretty cool.
From Khao Sok we had a short drive (~ 1 hour) to Khao Lok on the west coast. Since it was a short drive we made a stop for a jungle walk. We shouldn’t have. But we did. Even Ashlyn, who was not thrilled with the idea, enjoyed it.
The next stop was Emerald Beach Resort in Khao Lak. Khao Lak was one of the areas hardest hit during the 2004 tsunami and it was constantly on my mind knowing that the tsunami hit 8 years ago to the week that we were there. There was no visible evidence of the tsunami except for several memorials all along the coast. Emerald Beach resort was quite a change from the previous places we had stayed…this place had multiple pools and restaurants and definitely catered to families. We did not see one other person there that spoke English. The kids loved the pool slides, buffet breakfasts and dinners, and television. This wasn’t a bad place to spend New Year’s Eve. Our original plan had us taking a boat out to the islands to do some snorkeling, but after so much moving around we didn’t think the kids would appreciate a 3 hour boat ride (one-way) out there on our only day here.
New Year’s Eve. All quiet before the rain. After a drink under the bar, all was good and we could come back out.
Lighting of a floating lantern for good luck.
(Very hot) walk in Khao Lak National Park.
Who loves Thailand?
On the drive from Khao Lok we stopped at one of the many tsunami memorials that were along the coast. So hard to see so many names of families and children.
Next stop Arcadia Beach Resort in Ban Grood (or Ban Krut or Ban Krud) for one night as we make our way back to Bangkok. Very lovely place. We’d like to come back here to explore a bit more. One night was too short.
A lot of time in the car means taking advantage of a sleeping brother. 
Another roadside stop along the Thailand/Burma border. Nice waterfall and lunch.
One Night in Bangkok
Final stop: Bangkok for one day. We packed it in though…Canal Cruise, Grand Palace, and the Jim Thompson House. Oh yeah, and the mall. Very overwhelming mall. Even the toilets were overwhelming: seat temperature, bidet water pressure, water temperature, dry temperature…seriously (Ashlyn to me: “You go first”).
Our last night stay we went to a NY style pizza place next door to our hotel. Definitely not my first choice on how to spend one of my last meals in Thailand, but the kids were super excited about it. I guess Tierney and Ashlyn were a little over the Thai food because they ate 6+ pieces each. I don’t know where they put it all. Quite impressive.
Bangkok Canal Cruise
First stop to buy some clementines before we got on the boat
Later stop to buy some bananas from a floating market
Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)
Very steep climb, but amazing views of Bangkok
The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)
(no pics are allowed in the temple, but it was really beautiful)
The Jim Thompson House
Jim Thompson (Jeff – he’s a fellow architect and Princeton grad) came to Thailand with the OSS (now the CIA). He eventually moved to Thailand and can be largely credited with reviving the Thai silk industry and making it known worldwide. He mysteriously disappeared in Cameroon in 1967. He built the house in Bangkok by piecing together six different traditional Thai houses and began collecting Thai artwork that is now on display at the house.
(This was a girls outing. The boys were tired and went back to the hotel for some rest before we had to fly out that night)
Here we saw the process of boiling the silkworm cocoons and separating the silk strands (each about a mile long). You can see Ash pulling out the strands and collecting it in the basket. Then we saw the bleached and dyed strands. Really beautiful. The house and artwork were also really interesting to look at.
We finally got our tuk-tuk ride in.
Thailand is an amazing country. People were amazingly friendly and loved the little blond kids. While Anderson subsisted on french fries all week, Tierney loved the noodle bowls, and both Tierney and Ashlyn loved the banana smoothies. I ate my share of green curry and Matt the massaman curry.
There were a few things that surprised us:
- Love of their king and queen; their pictures were everywhere
- The perfectly paved roads & great signs the entire route (not to mention the 7-11’s)
- Beautiful (government) schools
- The lack of English. This may seem very egocentric of me, but really everywhere we’ve ever traveled has had English speakers for the tourist areas. This isn’t a complaint – in fact it was quite refreshing. Luckily most menus had pictures, so we could point.
- The lack of American (or really any English speaking country) tourists. We ran across one other family from the US and they were a family that lives in Malaysia. Matt commented to them about the lack of US tourists and they said the only US tourists they ever run across in Thailand are ex-pats living in other countries.
- There were 112 National Parks and 44 wildlife reserves. There seemed to be a very strong connection between religion and nature.
- Overall, especially compared to Africa, the high quality of life in Thailand (lack of poverty) and economic growth (Bangkok especially) was amazing.
- We felt safe everywhere we went. Even in Bangkok we never felt unsafe walking around even at night.
We can’t wait to go back.
Lost in Translation:
No matter the language. We recognize Fanta and Lay’s chips anywhere.
My boys
Matt and Anderson had a great time together this trip and had plenty of bonding time. Normally, Anderson prefers his mama, but in Thailand it was all about Daddy.
How lucky are we? Several of you already know that the day we came back from Thailand was our three year anniversary of leaving the US for Tanzania with 1, 4, and 5 year olds. At that point, one of my biggest fears was those first 24 hours of travel. Now we have expert travelers with so many stamps in their passports that want us to take them on a "trip around the world". Thanks, Matt, for this great adventure that we're on. I’m so glad to be taking it with you.
